Then there’s the longevity perk: There’s a lot of talk about traditional strength training to retain muscle mass and bone density as you age, but what sometimes gets overlooked is explosive strength, Blurton says. And that’s a shame, since that’s what can help you quickly catch yourself if you start to fall, or move out of the way of an unexpected obstacle. When it comes to general health and functionality as you age, explosive strength “is really important,” Blurton says.
Lastly, a side benefit to explosive strength exercises is that they work your anaerobic system, which is what your body uses during moves that are so intense you can only perform them for a couple minutes (or less!) at a time. Working anaerobically brings on a whole host of benefits, including boosted cardiorespiratory fitness, endurance, and energy levels, as SELF previously reported.
How best to train explosive strength
First off, it’s important to have a solid base of strength before you attempt to train explosively, Blurton says. That’s because this form of exercise involves high-impact movements that place a lot of stress on your body, so if you don’t have proper form or a baseline level of strength to tolerate that, you can up your odds of injury. So if you’re brand new to the gym, Blurton advises mastering more traditional weight lifting before moving onto explosive strength work.
From there, “it’s really about just gradually building in small volumes at first,” she says. There’s no set number of reps and sets to attempt; this depends in large part on how often you’re doing explosive moves in other scenarios. For example, if you’re playing rec tennis three times a week, you’re already doing some explosive training on the court, so you’d want to be mindful that you don’t overdo it in the gym too.
As a general starting place, though, Blurton suggests picking two or three plyo moves and doing each for two to three sets of 10 reps, two to three times a week. Don’t try to work as explosively as possible; instead, focus on proper form and mastering the movement pattern. Once you’ve got that down, decrease the reps to about four to six per set, and now focus on exerting as much force as possible while still keeping your great form. Throughout, pay attention to how your body feels and how well you’re able to maintain good form. You want to challenge yourself but stop before your form falters.
To that end, Blurton suggests starting with a lower-impact version of a move before progressing to its super explosive variation. For example, instead of going for max height on the pop squat, raise your heels but keep the balls of your feet on the ground. No matter what plyo move you’re doing, nailing good form—especially on the landing—is key. “When I’m training our athletes, a lot of the time they may have naturally a good ability to jump, but maybe their landing isn’t so controlled, and that actually is one of the bigger areas where you can get injured,” Blurton says. In that scenario, she’ll have the athlete break down the movement to fine-tune the landing before returning to the full-blown exercise.
Another way to improve your form with plyos is to prime your hips, core, quads, and glutes beforehand with exercises like banded walks, bodyweight squats, and planks, Blurton says. Activating these key areas in advance will help you better nail the correct movement pattern, since all the important players will be fired up and ready to go.
Ready to get started? Try out these explosive strength exercises below!